


UNDERWORLD: Triangle of Deception

by webhead3019



Category: Underworld (Movies)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:41:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22981189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/webhead3019/pseuds/webhead3019
Summary: Taking place between Rise of the Lycans and the original Underworld, Triangle of Deception is the story to how Kraven and Soren made their truce with Lucian. This deed became common knowledge to every Vampire and Lycan following the year 2000, but the immediate securing of this landmark truce is not where this particular story ends. It is merely the beginning, as this tale also recounts to how the two Kraven and Soren sold their lies to the greater entirety of the Vampire race. First to this most ruthless saga be warned, bloody finagles and uncompromising rival sibling hushes abound. The schemes are committed ones and by being so, their contingencies are most unkind to everyone who so dares to compromise them.





	1. The Three Points of No Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first real step towards the long-lasting truce with Lucian began with an unholy agreement. The agreement was one that naturally had to be arranged between two vampires before it could be arranged with anyone else, Lycan or not. This was not a one-man job for either immortal party, regardless of the roles they undertook. If it was never made beforehand, the aforementioned truce would have never transpired. Everything about this controversial event was a gamble for the sake of every immortal, everything preceding to it as well as everything succeeding it. It would continue to be an immortal gamble until the very day it was exposed in far different times. Arguably, the roots of the since disbanded truce still resonate for the 2 strongest races who have played quiet nemesis in one way or the other... even two decades after the Lycan leadership’s untainted messiah days has just as quietly become expelled.

Hundreds of years have came and gone since Lucian freed himself and countless other enslaved Lycans who had served as daylight guardians of the Vampire Elder Viktor’s fortress. Ever since Viktor put his own daughter to death for taking upon her a Lycan lover, the now heartbroken Lucian has sworn revenge on his former master. Both respective ends for the Vampire and Lycan races now lie uncertain as they endure their bloodiest crusades against one another. If both are to find peace however temporary and ensure the future, risky gambles will have to be made. These gambles are risky for a variety of reasons, as they will ultimately go against Viktor’s personal interest, which is the outright extermination of the Lycans. As proven once already, Viktor is the least forgiving of the lot. There is such a risky gamble already underway and it will be the riskiest one made yet.

Unbeknownst to him, Kraven was not alone in these controversial thoughts. Soren approached Kraven swiftly like a thief in the night and hummed creepily, “Kraven, Kraven. I hear rumblings.” Kraven replied curiously, “Rumblings? What sort of rumblings?” Soren looked to the pitch-black starless night sky and admitted, ”Oh, none too notable. The rumblings I have heard tell me that you intend to betray our lord Viktor and set a truce with Lucian, breaker of chains and sworn enemy to Vampires far and wide.” Kraven chuckled and stated, “That’s a rather notable rumbling if you ask me. If I may ask, who told you of this rumbling?” Soren grinned devilishly and pointed out, “I don’t need to bite into you to tell when you’re dodging me, Kraven.” Soren paused before adding, “That is something we’ll have to work on.” Kraven looked confused and asked, “What can you mean by that, Soren?”

Soren declared almost immediately, ”Well clearly, I want in. I stray so far as to wish upon something equally brash. That is the taboo of not only signing off on your mission, but to make the unholy agreement with you, Kraven. With all this untethered straying immediately on the mind, it would be most fatally unwise to refuse this unholy agreement. If you so bloody wish, call this blackmail or pocket-probing even. I on the other hand, call it bare naked necessity.” Kraven had himself a ratty chuckle and recorded back to Soren snidely, “Unholy agreement, you say? You can’t possibly be bloody serious.” Soren confirmed immensely, “Indeed, serious as I’ll ever bloody be. About the straying, it can go farther and not just for me. Together and according to the unholy agreement, I humbly believe we can stray much farther than this.” Kraven implored simply, “Why?” Soren answered, “With time, you will know. There is much to discuss between you and I.”

To get on the same page, Kraven asked, “In this unholy agreement, we are mutual shareholders?” Soren specified, “Aye, and I am no more born of wolf than you. If ever you betray as a Lycan would, I will feed your scattered and minced remains to the very savage beasts that would host such company.” Kraven said wittily, “That doesn’t sound much like an alliance then.” Soren disagreed and explained, “Our mutual duty is to keep the bloody wolves outside our home, not inside it. That’s how it goes and that’s how it will continue to go.” Kraven responded, “Of course, and the same goes for you.” To Kraven’s surprise, Soren concurred, “That would be agreeably wise.” Soren lectured, “Fool me once, shame on you. Although someone who is truly ruthless will not be fooled again... even if he has to remove his trickster entirely for no more charges than just that one offense.” Kraven remarked, “Ah, yes. Sustainable empires are built on sustainable relationships.”

Soren reiterated, “It’s the truth. This sustainability cannot once be denied. If ever you are to fool me, you will never have a second go-around. It is certain that we are each other’s means to an endless end. However, that can just as easily be turned into a very finite one.” Kraven raised eyebrows to which Soren said, “We may be immortals by nature, but those powers can be tweaked.” Soren said more specifically, “We can be eliminated by unnatural means.” Kraven said, “While indeed we can, I can’t help but notice you speak as though you have overseen many befall such unnatural means.” Soren replied, “Aye. We may not look it, but age is but a number to you and I. You’re far younger than me even if we do look the same. Excluding of course the Elders, I’m one of the few oldest alive to experience Viktor’s reign when his youth was still relative. Like many immortals who have come even after, I’ve lost track of my age.”

Kraven went ever onward saying, “Solid numbers tend to lose their value, though I have lived an estimated 700 years.” Kraven said, “I just celebrated my 100th birthday. I did not fathom you more than double my age.” Soren said, “Ah, yes. More than double. I am your sextuple if we are to be precise. Sextuple your age, sextuple the experience, and sextuple the inclination to treachery.” Kraven said, “Plenty of Vampires have been killed for such inclinations. Veterans even. Treachery is not something found scarce amongst us.” Soren agreed, “You are nothing short of dead on target. No, not one hair less. Many if most veterans have fallen this way.” Soren further enlightened, “How they have fallen, almost always by the hands of Viktor and his loyalists. Few second generational veterans remains. I am one of the few.” Kraven stated, “If that is the truth, then you more than anyone, should be a loyalist yourself.”

Soren said, “Nay, it’s not supposed to be like that at all if you’d just focus your listening for one uninterrupted moment.” Kraven went on, “I know that, Soren. With how vague and smack out-of-the-blue this is though, I really must beg a specific why. Why betray Viktor and join forces with someone younger and less fierce in cruelty as me?” Soren answered, “Immortals who are loyal without fault are fools. As fate would dictate, immortals who are loyal to no one but themselves are also fools. No one can go it alone. To achieve perfect agreement, two must achieve perfect union. Mine and Viktor’s union was not perfect.” Still not entirely convinced and still not quite successfully answered, Kraven asked again, “How so?” Soren said finally, “He betrayed me first by denying it the fruits of immortality I am owed by inheritance.” Kraven said, “I think I’m beginning to understand now.”

Soren became nevertheless more intimate with his ravings and so added, “He betrays us all indiscriminately or else we would not be sharing this chat of ours. He does this, because Viktor is loyal only to himself. As proven over and over again, history is no less kind to those who don’t play their cards just right as such close-minded rulers.” Soren blasphemed, “He is not God, nor is he the Devil. His devilry is not singular, it is legion.” Kraven added, “Legion can make you and legion can conspire against you. That could deny Viktor his place in the end.” Soren concurred, “Exactly. You must starve and you must be brilliantly evil. Those who are most hungry and most thoughtful, yet the most unapologetic about it are the ones most uneasily killed.” Kraven finished, “Those are what you would call true immortals. Viktor doesn’t fall in that category. No, I don’t believe Viktor’s old, sad heart ever thaws.”

Soren continued to berate their ruler, “Even after the rest of his body has been animated anew, it still does not thaw. The poor bastard forever lives in the past and should therefore be prevented from interfering with the future. He’s backed us all into a corner and he’s too stubborn to realize it.” Soren both agreed and disagreed, “Such immortals do not surrender their quick thinking when backed into corner.” Soren stated cryptically, “They must use that corner to their advantage in whichever way necessary. I wholly support you for thinking we cannot possibly kill Lucian now. An alliance must be forged between us and Lucian to ensure the foreseeable future. I will do it and I will cut away his branded skin.” Kraven asked, “You think that mangy mutt of a man will just let you cut into him?” Soren said, “Nay and yet if he hasn’t himself done the deed already, I do think he’d want me to free him of his bond to Viktor.”

Kraven said, “That just made this gamble all the more tricky and layered.” Soren said, “In the grand scheme of it all, a gamble that possesses not a stairwell to ascend and steps of an intricate design is a gamble not worth doing. It’s a gamble I am willing to die for, because if I will die without question die if I am not. Under the assumption he still has it, I will cut the skin from the beast even if that hind-leg operating carpet sinks his fangs in me on the slightest primal impulse.” Kraven thought for a second before denying, “Nay, the carving of Lucian’s flesh must be by my hand.” Kraven said again, “I must be the one to do it. You may discuss this part, but it is not up for negotiation I’m afraid.” Soren sneered, “Imbecile! Viktor’s wisest attribute is that he is a paranoid and trusts no one, but as we both know, he doesn’t go about this paranoia in a beneficial way to any given party. Between me and you, Viktor suspects you the most. You are not so prepared as I.”

Kraven said, “That which you mentioned is all the reason why I must be the one. I’m the one with the most to lose in this particular scheme. I’m the one who needs to convince him, not you.” Soren asked, “That’s a lot of credit for one Vamp to take. What makes you so sure you’re up to the task?” Kraven admitted, “I’m not. The most colorful profits can only be found in the most uncertain gambles. You’ve done more than enough on your part already. Let me have this victory and secure this dark alliance.” Soren said, “Very well. You will conveniently go down in history, the only celebrated point in this triangle of deception. Albeit, never forget the invisible allies that have made your victory possible. If not for my wave of approval, you would be nothing save dog food.” Kraven concluded, “Of course I won’t. You will be celebrated as well, albeit in secret. After all, as I you, my means for an endless end.” With that, the party of two that had been held quickly dispersed.

They escaped to opposite directions. They escaped into the enveloping, conceiting curtains of the black, very black night. The night for all their moments together had been conveniently black enough to host the demand of secrecy their meeting required to meet itself. Not one presently else, Vampire or otherwise outside of Kraven and Soren knew of the most recent and dangerous conspiracy. Lucian was merely a puppy dog when it came to how dangerous their mission was. Even if Kraven managed to convince Viktor of his warrior prowess, a whole new spotlight will be cast on him should he secure the “greatest victory” in the history of Vampires. Should Viktor come to distrust Kraven and bite into him only once, everything he had accomplished would be for naught. Should that critical bit ever come to light, the scheme-invested Vampire would ironically get the stake driven right through his heart. Basically there was only way to win once and for all. That was for Kraven to outsmart all of his nemesis Vampires within the ranks and gain their trust.

Bewared and yet arrived— the three points of no return.

UNDERWORLD: Triangle of Deception


	2. Chapter 2

Lucian and Raze are brothers born of chains like one another and also unalike one another. They were not at first conjoined by the Lycan blood that truly makes them family until Raze’s rebirth which could not make it anymore so. Raze was free once and by the cruel nature of an absent god, he was not once more. A human man was whipping a captured Raze like a dog. Being the brothers that they are, it was a whipping Lucian would not stand for if he were there. It was a whipping Raze would not stand for either, though he would find it most complicated if he tried standing with his current obstruction in mind. He wore long and deep bloody gashes which had been cut around his spine and tailbone as physically visible as the separated skin that cling to the crudely barbed whip. He had been cut quite literally down to the bone. Not even the fabric of his buttocks was spared as flaps of flesh belonging to his cheeks had either been torn from him or hung about loosely in the winds. The devil’s wrath had bled Raze, severely weakening him. If he didn’t have the damn spiked collar around his neck, he could at least change into Lycan form to rejuvenate before he fell unconscious from the all too routine shock of it all.

It had never even been necessary in the first place and Raze reckoned on the contrary that if he could muster enough strength upon healing, he’d karmically show the man how it felt to be nakedly shredded into a gruesome display of rear marrow and shrapnel. The man clutching the hook-ended whip which had become synonymous with Raze’s flesh and bone did not know how notorious Raze was and how sought out by the Lycans he was when he bought him in a seemingly ideal slave exchange. If he did, he would know it was the least ideal purchase in the catastrophic history of them. In the end, the human man is the slave all along. The man is a slave to his own ignorance and his impending treatment by the hands of those above him will be far more swift and yet far more gruesome. Just as the man was about to whip Raze again, someone toughly caught him by the wrist. That someone was none other than Lucian. It was within the very moment Lucian made himself clear that the man was now aware. It was befitting moments like these when the cruel misguided ones simply knew his or her day of reckoning was officially upon them.

With the man imprisoned in the vice grip like the pathetic weasel he truly was, Lucian tiresomely lectured, “We’ve progressed way too far for you humans to still be taking a whip to us.” He kept it a short and sweet utterance, though Lucian did not rest up at all on his tough seizure of the man’s arm. The man tried to jerk away to continue, incredibly fearful though not quite realizing who exactly Lucian was. The man said, “HEY, LET GO! YA HURTING—” Lucian placed even more pressure than before when he did a sudden jerk out and to the back, which snapped the man’s upper arm inwards morbidly. The man screamed as his newly sharp and broken-ended bone popped out of his skin. The man screamed, “AGGHHH!! I THINK YE BROKE MY—” Lucian folded his cracked upper arm flat against the side of the forearm it should never be flat against and twisted it roughly 180 degrees despite being splintered already 6 ways to sundown. With every excruciatingly painful crunch and scream, Lucian dragged the spike of a broken bone a little more as a weapon against the very body it was still horribly a part of.

Blood kept splashing out by the pail as his wrist artery was mortally cleaved as simply as knife on butter. By that point he was a goner and he knew it. He was screaming too incoherently for capable interruption by even one word. Lucian casually pulled the broken bone free from the very obliviated muscle of his arm like an arrow from a sheath and asked, “What was it you were going to say I broke? I think you spoke too soon, because I think I ended up doing a little more than break one thing. If you ask me though, this all serves you right. If this is not for you being a bloody bastard of a man, it’s for you being a bloody balfek.” Lucian wagged the man’s separated bone in front of the man’s face and goaded, “Come on, boy. Who wants to play fetch?” The man screamed in horror and reached out with his both of his arms. However, the one with the compromised structure wobbled and flew about loosely like a sleeve with no arm in it. It essential was just that after all. Lucian cut him deeply across the face with the bone not unlike a sword. He slicing him from his left brow down to the right side of his chin.

The split sides of his face was just one bad fall from sliding apart to the side and out from another like broken tectonic plates. Lucian bellowed, “That’s not how we fetch, now is it? On all fours, dog!” The bawling mess of a man looked down at his mangled arm that was bouncing all over the place. Using the conveniently softened flesh to his advantage, Lucian sliced the man’s demolished arm off with none other than the bone that was getting ground sharper with every bloody step of his torture. Lucian said, “Fine, on all threes. Unless you’re looking to lose more limbs, I suggest you get to them.” The man fumbled forth to his threes in compliance, screaming harder than ever and wanting nothing more to do with it. Lucian said, “It’s not so fun playing the dog, is it? When won’t you stubborn twats ever get a clue that we aren’t your slaves anymore? You only seem to get it when it bloody kills you. Pathetic. You know what separates me from you?” The scared-to-death man frantically shook his head no. Lucian said, “Pity.” Lucian snapped the bone in half and crammed either of the shards through their own respective jugular.

Lucian left the bones impaled in him like oddly placed tusks and slapped his face to gain his attention one last time, only considerably more lightly this time. Lucian said, “Time to go down the river. May the devil of this dark underworld have for you the same pity as me.” His eyes rolled back to the whites as if his soul had just left his body and a copious amount of blood exploded forth almost immediately. The last of him was still kicking as was going to bleed to death either way. Now with the final compromise, he was simply going to bleed to death quicker. Showy blood after blood cascaded and fumed steamily out of him like the Hellish waterfalls of the River Styx. Lucian left the man to spastically fumble and gargle about as he turned his attention to freeing his brother Raze. Lucian ripped the collar off his neck with a quick yank and in the process, snapped it in two. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to do it, but Raze was tough and the sooner he freed him of his bonds the better. Raze started the transformation but he quickly resettled when Lucian calmly interjected, “No, no. Save your energy, brother. I’ll just give you my blood. After all, my blood is your blood. The blood we share makes our bond all the stronger. With the right amount, you’ll be on your feet again in no time.”

Lucian carefully sliced the back of his hand open against the collar spikes. He was careful not to cut an artery, but he didn’t exactly hold back either. He let his blood spill out over Raze’s injuries and spread copious amounts of blood like lotion over his back as well. All of the slabs of flesh and muscle tissue to the bone chips and even the bloodwork which was no longer there began to materialize anew. Raze managed to will himself to sit upright and criss-cross applesauce much to Lucian’s silent disapproval. Thankfully, Raze didn’t dare go any further than that. Lucian knew firsthand how tough and persistent Raze was, but he didn’t want him to get too stubborn either. After all he was his Lycan brother, not his expendable pawn. In truth, none of his Lycan brothers were his pawns. It would be most hypocritical, seeing that Lucian freed every last one of them and wanted nothing more than the best possible life for them. Sometimes achieving the ideal life meant fighting as nastily as you can for it. Sometimes it also meant knowing when to lay low and take it easy, hibernate if you have to. Raze rubbed his neck as if he could still feel the collar there and broke his silence, “I thought you had given up on me, Lucian. It’s been a full Winter since I was last captured.”

Raze apologized, “I had gotten so stupid and careless. It’s my fault you had to come out this way, but you had all the reason to leave me for dead.” Lucian said, “I will not leave you behind, dead or otherwise. Not now or ever for that matter, I’m afraid. You can repeat the same mistake a million years from now. Rest assured, I will be there.” Raze said, “I don’t know what I did to win you. You are my oldest friend, Lucian. I was born of chains. I never knew life outside them... not until I met you. You alone changed that.” Lucian said, “Nonsense, brother. We changed that ourselves, by merely becoming who we were meant to be.” Raze’s ears perked up as a quickly closing-in stampede of horse hooves and swords clanging together could be heard. Raze grumbled, “Damn, just our luck. It appears we have some uninvited company on our hands already. That must be the new record set for our cousin vermin. It doesn’t make the least bit of sense to rest here now.” Lucian joined in with perked ears of his own and acknowledged, “It doesn’t make any sense to rest in general. We’re technically safe where we are though... even if I didn’t always keep a spare battalion of reinforcement Lycans with me closeby. With how hastily they’re approaching, they probably don’t even know we’re here. If my ears aren’t mistaking me, the direction Viktor’s army brats are heading towards will cause them to completely pass us by. Yes, it’s a clear shot I’m sure.”

Raze’s eyes widened and he exclaimed, “Castle Corvinus! Did you leave it understaffed?” Lucian said, “Of course not. You truly needn’t worry at all. I did not come in small numbers either. They are quite simply a cavalry. We are quite simply an army. It is rather queer though, don’t you think?” Raze asked, “What is rather queer?” Lucian said, “Viktor has never let his scrotum descend far enough for him to ever return this way. Never before in history has he bothered to reclaim what was once his castle from me.” Raze joked dryly, “Did you maybe consider Viktor did that for you out of professional courtesy or the kindness of his heart.” Lucian stifled a split-second chuckle and said, “Don’t make me laugh. He did that because he was wise. My lay of land is a bloody death trap. Anyone who wants to come this way is either a mad dog or suicidal. Either way, it’s a rogue with a great deal of charisma and leadership skills to drag all these poor unsuspecting patriots out with him to their certain impending deaths. Has to be some excellent type of charmer, seeing that they’re loosely led at best.”

Raze asked, “You don’t sense none of Viktor’s stench behind this?” Lucian said, “No, none of his.” Raze said, “If not his, whose? Whomst in his army of brainwashed buffoons would even dare? Is everything not Viktor’s domain?” Lucian said, “My guess is some crook bureaucrat who’s looking to step up the solo act since Viktor isn’t precisely who you’d call the most sharing person in the world. Can’t say I blame whoever this sorry bastard is, but I pity him no less. It’s definitely someone acting of their own accord, someone who can manipulate the crowd into following him. That’s why I think he’s a stinking bureaucrat. They think they can just take the world by surprise and be celebrated as heroes for it. Poor deluded fools. They’ll all be wiped out in the blink of an eye.” Raze asked, “Time for them to see through to the other side the error of their ways?” Lucian said, “Time indeed and that is our cue, my friend.” With that, Lucian bellowed, “LYCANS!!” In the blink of an eye, thousands of Lycans swarmed out from all sides.


End file.
